Developing subsidiary contribution to the MNC—Subsidiary entrepreneurship and strategy creativity

Despite its theoretical and managerial significance, subsidiary entrepreneurship and its effects on subsidiary contribution remain underexplored in the literature. We propose that subsidiary entrepreneurship encourages more creative strategic responses to escalating environmental change. We explore the direct and mediating effects of subsidiary entrepreneurship on subsidiary contribution to the MNC, particularly subsidiary strategy creativity. We use structural equation modelling to test our propositions on data generated from surveying the population of Irish subsidiaries of foreign MNCs, and find strong support for our theoretical predictions. The managerial implications of subsidiary entrepreneurship in generating creative strategy, prompting strategic initiatives and improving performance are discussed.     

My Loss Is Your Loss … Sometimes: Loss Aversion and the Effect of Motivational Biases

Findings from previous studies of individual decision-making behavior predict that losses will loom larger than gains. It is less clear, however, if this loss aversion applies to the way in which individuals attribute value to the gains and losses of others, or if it is robust across a broad spectrum of policy and management decision contexts. Consistent with previous work, the results from a series of experiments reported here revealed that subjects exhibited loss aversion when evaluating their own financial gains and losses. The presence of loss aversion was also confirmed for the way in which individuals attribute value to the financial gains and losses of others. However, similar evaluations within social and environmental contexts did not exhibit loss aversion. In addition, research subjects expected that individuals who were unknown to them would significantly undervalue the subjects' own losses across all contexts. The implications of these findings for risk-based policy and management are many. Specifically, they warrant caution when relying upon loss aversion to explain or predict the reaction of affected individuals to risk-based decisions that involve moral or protected values. The findings also suggest that motivational biases may lead decisionmakers to assume that their attitudes and beliefs are common among those affected by a decision, while those affected may expect unfamiliar others to be unable to identify and act in accordance with shared values.     

In Search of Appropriate Development Theory and Practice

Public Organization Review -     

Employment Day: Forty Years of Transitioning High School Seniors Into the Workforce

The author describes an innovative career development event that has endured for nearly 40 years: Employment Day. This is a consummate collaborative undertaking of school professionals, higher education participants, and the community of employers in the Greater Suffolk County, Long Island, New York, region. It embodies the principles of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA; 2000) national standards, the ASCA (2003) National Model, and the New York State Comprehensive Model (New York State School Counselor Association, 2004) as a culminating activity. Employment Day is an event worth replicating by professional counseling associations.     

Social Support, Traumatic Events, and Depressive Symptoms Among African Americans

Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among stress, social support, negative interaction, and mental health in a sample of African American men and women between ages 18 and 54 (N = 591) from the National Comorbidity Study. The study findings indicated that social support decreased the number of depressive symptoms, did not mitigate the effects of stress, and was reduced in response to financial strain. Financial strain and traumatic events were associated with increased negative interaction with relatives and depressive symptoms. The findings verify that stressful and traumatic events have direct influences on levels of depressive symptoms and affect the quality of social interactions and suggest how social interaction processes contribute to mental health.     

Crony Capitalism and Financial System Stability

Prior to the Asian financial crisis, the cozy relationships between corporations, governments, and banks were seen as a potent force for economic growth and development. In this article we examine the institution of crony capitalism. Under conditions in which the Second Welfare Theorem does not hold, there is a role for government. Some governmental institutions do encourage more risky, high-payoff entrepreneurial activities. Our aim is to examine crony capitalism as a potential source of government activity that enhances economic productivity. In addition, we explore the conditions under which the government activity can instigate a financial crisis.     

Social Support and Government Policy on Services for the Elderly

Government policy on services for the elderly is to increase the provision of care in the community. This paper examines this policy in relation to informal help received from relatives and friends.
Drawing on the results of a pilot study of 92 people over the age of 75, registered in a group general practice, data are presented on the balance between informal and formal help over a group of activities of daily livhg. The main informal helpers are described with the range of activities for which people in the study were receiving assistance.
Community services are, at present, limited in the help they can provide for people in their own homes. If policies of community care are to be successful, then they must take into account the strengths and weaknesses of informal support. Using the data presented, suggestions are made a bout improvements in services including task specific services not currently provided and the definition of groups at risk of their social support breaking down.     

Lloyd's Financial Distress and Contagion within the US Property and Liability Insurance Industry

The intra-industry effect of Lloyd's financial distress on publicly traded US insurance companies is examined. Given Lloyd's prominence in the international insurance industry, large losses raised questions about the industry's capacity for certain types of risks and the financial solvency of other insurers. The market value of US property-liability insurers fell significantly at the announcement. This decline is related to the firm's revenues from insurance and reinsurance exposure. Results support contagion between Lloyd's distress and the US insurance industry. The study raises concerns about the potential for a systematic disruption of the supply of reinsurance in the international marketplace.     

Asymptotic separability in sensitivity analysis

In an observational study in which each treated subject is matched to several untreated controls by using observed pretreatment covariates, a sensitivity analysis asks how hidden biases due to unobserved covariates might alter the conclusions. The bounds required for a sensitivity analysis are the solution to an optimization problem. In general, this optimization problem is not separable, in the sense that one cannot find the needed optimum by performing a separate optimization in each matched set and combining the results. We show, however, that this optimization problem is asymptotically separable, so that when there are many matched sets a separate optimization may be performed in each matched set and the results combined to yield the correct optimum with negligible error. This is true when the Wilcoxon rank sum test or the Hodges-Lehmann aligned rank test is applied in matching with multiple controls. Numerical calculations show that the asymptotic approximation performs well with as few as 10 matched sets. In the case of the rank sum test, a table is given containing the separable solution. With this table, only simple arithmetic is required to conduct the sensitivity analysis. The method also supplies estimates, such as the Hodges-Lehmann estimate, and confidence intervals associated with rank tests. The method is illustrated in a study of dropping out of US high schools and the effects on cognitive test scores.